Quitting
by SherlockIsMyHolmesBoy
Summary: A slightly different retelling of the events after arriving in Boston. And Derek does some good!


"If I quit, would you quit?"

"Excuse me?"

"If I quit, would you quit?"

"What, so you're quitting now?" Tom paced around his hotel room, cell phone pressed to his ear.

"I'm not saying that. I'm just asking, would you go if I went?" Silence. "Well, would you? Tom?"

"Julia, you can't ask me a question like that. Besides, you can't quit. This is our show."

"Well, I'm feeling like I have no other option. You hired Michael back, Tom, what am I supposed to do?"

"I don't know Julia, maybe you could be professional about this. Maybe you could remove your affair from the theater and stop holding up this production because of decisions you've made."

"Tom…"

"Julia, we don't have time to recast, we need a DiMaggio, he's going on. I'll see you at the theater in the morning." Tom hung up.

* * *

Tom sat at the desk in the auditorium, arms folded, watching the action on stage. The ensemble were going through some of the newer moves for their big numbers with the dance captain while Derek went through light cues with the backstage crew. Usually, Tom loved the excitement and busyness surrounding the opening of a show but this time, he felt way too stressed to get excited.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Julia sit down next to him. He looked over towards her. "You're here then."

Julia kept her eyes on the stage. "It's rehearsal, Tom, of course I'm here."

Tom turned back towards the stage. "You've not quit yet?"

"I never said I was quitting."

"Well that's what it sounded like to me."

"Tom keep your voice down" Julia hissed as she saw Derek turn to look at them. She turned towards him. "I never said I was quitting. All I asked was if you'd quit too."

"No." Tom replied, standing up. "No I wouldn't." He leaned down and hissed back at her "If you can't keep your hands off loverboy then that is not my problem. This show means too much to me to abandon, even for you, and it hurts me that you'd jump ship so easily." He walked past her, up the aisle to the back of the auditorium and out through the curtains. Julia watched him go, and turned back to see Derek stood next to her, looking at the spot where Tom had been stood..

"Trouble in paradise?" He asked.

"Funny." Julia replied. "Tom's having a moment. Let him be."

Derek sat down next to Julia. "Now, Tom may be gay but I know he's not a diva. You've upset him." He sat back in his chair and faced the stage. "I'm glad to see you're here."

"I nearly wasn't."

"So I understand. Thinking of abandoning your show, that's not like you Julia."

"It's fine. You would've still have Tom."

"Well that makes me intensely happy." Derek replied, deadpan. Julia glanced over towards him. "He wouldn't have followed you out then?"

"Apparently not."

"Oh so _that's _what this is all about. Julia, as much as it pains me to say it, Tom's right."

"Excuse me?" Julia turned to face Derek, a look of confusion on her face.

"He's right. Julia, darling, you leaving now would be a disaster. The end of the show needs rewriting. If we brought in a new bookwriter now not only would it be really obvious but there's no way Tom would work with them."

"Tom's a professional."

"He is. But there's a reason your partnership is Houston and Levitt. Look." He turned to look at Julia. "No matter what I think about Tom as a person, there's no denying that he writes amazing music. The two of you together are genius. There's no way that, if we put Tom with someone else, we would come up with anything half as good."

Julia didn't reply.

"The main reason I am doing this project in the first place is because it's a Houston and Levitt piece. You take one of those pieces away and this show falls flat. Tom's a professional. You need to be one as well, Julia." Derek stood up. "Oh, and, no matter what he says, he'd go with you." He started back down the aisle towards the stage. "Go and make up with you composer please, Julia" He shouted to her as he left. "I'd like a show with an ending please."

* * *

Julia found Tom leaning up against the closed box office in the foyer, and paper cup of coffee in his hands. She leant next to him.

"The show has problems, Julia." Tom said after a short while. "The ending needs to be rewritten. We need to rehearse with new cast and we don't have a lot of time." He sighed. "You leaving now is the worst thing that could happen to the show. It's the worst thing that could happen to _me._"

"You'd be fine, Tom."

"Julia, if I wanted to write the show with someone else, I would have written it with someone else. But I didn't. I write with _you, _because _you're _my writing partner. "

"Derek said you would have left."

"You talked to Derek about this?"

"He's the director, Tom, he knew something was up."

"Oh great, I bet he loved hearing about that…"

"He said you were right, Tom."

"I'm sorry?" Tom looked at Julia, an eyebrow raised.

"He said you were right."

"Well it's a shame I wasn't there in person to hear it."

"Tom, I'm sorry." Julia turned to face him. "I'm sorry I blamed you, I'm sorry I didn't come to Boston sooner. And I'm sorry I asked you to leave. I shouldn't have done that."

"No. You shouldn't have. But we cannot finish this show if we're fighting." He turned to face her. "Julia, you can't back out. Even Frank and Leo want you to stay. Please don't throw this away."

"I'm not going to leave. I'm going to stick it out."

"Good."

"And we cannot fight like this. Julia, please remember that I am always on your side. Even if I don't agree with what you do, even if you make stupid decisions, I will always be on your side."

"I know that. I really do." She smiled at him. "Thank you, Tom." She hugged him, just as Derek briskly walked past.

"Good good, glad to see we're all friends again, now if our fantastic creators could write an ending to the show that would be marvellous."

Tom looked at Julia and rolled his eyes. "C'mon, let's try and write the world's happiest suicide."


End file.
